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Receiving Regulated QROPS Advice

For people looking for advice with transferring their schemes from an existing UK pension scheme to an overseas pension scheme, approved as a Qualifying Recognized Overseas Pension Scheme (QROPS), there is always the question of who should you approach for advice?

Who can provide Regulated QROPS Advice?

There are many overseas advisers (and QROPS schemes) that are more than willing to speak to an individual interested in transferring their UK pension benefits to a QROPS. In many cases a UK pension member would be receiving advice from someone who is acting in good faith but are they receiving the same protection from the regulators for UK pension to QROPS advice as they would be receiving if they were being advised on a UK pension to another UK pension, transfer?

In most cases an overseas adviser (or scheme administrator) will not be authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) and therefore could not be subject to any complaint to the FSA ombudsman if the advice to transfer out of a UK scheme was incorrect.

Receiving regulated advice from a UK based adviser is a very important advantage for a UK pension member, particularly for a UK pension member looking for QROPS advice pre-migration, as this offers the customer a degree of protection they would not necessarily get from a non-UK based adviser.

Anyone looking for QROPS advice should check, with the adviser that they are speaking to, that they confirm they are FSA authorised and regulated.